Glossary of Terms

Supporting Glossary of Terms Te following glossary is intended for use by teachers to inform their engagement with students on a variety of topics addressed in the Becoming US materials. Tese defnitions are gathered primarily from the Diversity Style Guide, located online at diversitystyleguide.com, and from the exhibition Many Voices, One Nation and the book of the same name, among other sources. abolition Major American reform movement that sought to end slavery in America using a wide range A of tactics and organizations. While abolitionists are commonly portrayed as white people deeply concerned about the plight of enslaved black people, many were African American. Free black people in the North also were stalwart in their dedication to the cause and provided fnancial support. activist, advocate An activist is someone who actively advocates for political or social change. Others who also push for causes, however, ofen are called advocates. Advocate is more neutral and a better choice, unless a subject describes himself or herself as an activist. affrmative action In the United States, afrmative action began under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was a way to address discrimination based on gender and race. Other countries also have afrmative action policies. Rulings expanded the U.S. law to include disability, ethnic origin, and age. One myth is that African Americans are the chief benefciaries of afrmative action. Tat is not true. Te U.S. Department of Labor has said that white women have been the primary benefciaries of afrmative action policies. African American, African-American, Black, black People in the United States who share a lineage that can be traced directly or indirectly to Africa. Black and African American do not necessarily mean the same thing and individuals may prefer one term over the other. It’s best to ask. Some black people do not identify as African American. Tis lineage, while collective, contains a diverse array of histories, cultures, and experiences. Tis includes, but is not limited to, black, African American, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latino, and African immigrants living in the United States. Some people may identify themselves as African American to resist black as a socially constructed category. Others may identify this way to assert their American identity. Tere are many reasons one might identify as African American. Some people may identify as black because they do not feel connected to the American state. Others may identify as black because they do not identify with the African continent. African diaspora Black people of African descent who are scattered throughout the world; refers to black people whose ancestors were removed from the African continent through slavery and colonization, and dispersed worldwide, according to the National Association of Black Journalists Style Guide. Te African diaspora is a byproduct of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which dispersed millions of people. Te Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database estimates that 12.5 million Africans were taken to the Americas and the Caribbean. About 1.8 million died en route. Tis forced move imposed a negative legacy. Overlaying new locations on African origins changed identities. Afro-American Archaic term to describe a black person. Popular in the 1960s and 1970s, the name was overtaken by black and later African American in the 1980s and 1990s. Do not use. alien A word used by the U.S. government to describe a foreign-born person who is not a citizen by naturalization or parentage. People who enter the United States legally are called resident aliens and they carry alien registration cards, also known as green cards because they used to be green. While Webster’s frst defnition of the term alien is in accordance with the government’s interpretation, the dictionary also includes other, darker, meanings for the word, such as “a non-terrestrial being,” “strange,” “not belonging to one,” “adverse,” and “hostile.” And Encyclopedia Britannica points out that “in early times, the tendency was to look upon the alien as an enemy and to treat him as a criminal or an outlaw.” It is not surprising then that in 1798, in anticipation of a possible war with France, the U.S. Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which restricted “aliens” and curtailed press freedoms. By 1800, the laws had been repealed or had expired but they still cast a negative shadow over the word. In modern times, with science fction growing in popularity, alien has come to mean a creature from outer space, and is considered pejorative by most immigrants. Alien Land Laws Enacted by many western states in the early 1900s, these laws prevented Asian people from owning land. Most of these laws were repealed in the late 1950s and 1960s. American Indian American Indian and Native American are both generally acceptable, although individuals may have a preference. It is usually best to refer to Native people by their specifc tribe or nation, such as Navajo, Hopi, or Cherokee. Indigenous people in the United States were frst referred to as Indians because Christopher Columbus believed he had reached the East Indies when he touched the shores of North America. Today, many Native people prefer to call themselves American Indian to avoid stereotypes associated with Indian. anchor baby, anchor child A child born to a non-citizen mother in a country that grants automatic citizenship to children born on its soil, especially if parents plan the birth to secure eventual citizenship for themselves and other members of their family. Te term is pejorative; avoid except in quotations. Angel Island Te West Coast counterpart to Ellis Island, New York. From 1910 to 1940, the U.S. Immigration Station processed hundreds of thousands of immigrants, the majority from China, at Angel Island. During World War II, Japanese and German POWs were detained at the station before being sent to facilities farther inland. Angel Island is now a state park run by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. A virtual tour of the island, produced by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, is available here. Anglo/Anglo-Saxon/Anglo American [Adapted from BBC History] Te term Anglo-Saxon refers to settlers from the German regions of Angeln and Saxony, who migrated to Britain afer the fall of the Roman Empire around AD 410. In the context of the contemporary United States, Anglo American refers to people of European descent or the white race. anti-Semitism A prejudice against people of Jewish heritage. It has inspired the Holocaust, physical abuse, slander, economic and social discrimination, vandalism, and other crimes. Religious anti- Semitism is based on the idea that all Jews are eternally and collectively responsible for killing Jesus (known as deicide). It has been formally renounced by most major churches, led by the Catholic Church. Although Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet, they do not make the anti- Semitic claim against Jews because they do not believe that Jesus was crucifed. Economic and political anti-Semitism is rooted in widespread 19th- and 20th-century claims that Jews were engaged in a plot to rule the world. Arab Refers to nation or people from an Arabic-speaking country. Not synonymous with Muslim. When referring to events in a specifc country, name the country, rather than generalizing Arab. Arab is a noun for a person and it can be used as an adjective, as in Arab country. Do not imply that Arab equals Muslim, holy war, or terrorist. Note: Iran is not an Arab country. Te majority of Iranian people are Persian and the language is Farsi. Arab American, American Arab A U.S. citizen or permanent resident who traces his or her ancestry to, or who immigrated from, Arabic-speaking places in the Middle East (southwestern Asia and northern Africa). Not all people who live in this region are Arabs. Te U.S. government does not classify Arabs as a minority group for the purposes of employment and housing. Arab American is preferred over American Arab. Aryan Derived from the Sanskrit “arya,” or “noble.” In scholarly usage, a member of a people speaking one of a family of Indo-European languages, the presumed predecessor of much later languages spoken in Europe and the Indian subcontinent. In the late 19th century, the term became part of the anti-Semitic ideology that led to Nazism. In the modern usage of white supremacists, an Aryan is a non-Jewish white person. Asian Caution. A term as broad as European. In some usage, chiefy British, Asian refers to Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and others. In the United States, such ethnic groups would be known as South Asians, while Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and others would be known as East Asians. Asian Exclusion Acts Laws in which Congress barred or sharply restricted the immigration of Asians to the United States. Te Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese laborers and prohibited Chinese from applying for citizenship; it was repealed in 1943. Te 1924 Oriental Exclusion Act banned immigration from Asia. Only afer 1965, with immigration laws designed to encourage European immigration, did Asian immigration also expand. Asian, U.S. Census defnition of Te U.S. Census Bureau defnes Asian as “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Tailand, and Vietnam.” Native Hawaiian or Other Pacifc Islander refers to: “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacifc Islands.” Te Census Bureau notes: “Te racial categories included in the census questionnaire generally refect a social defnition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to defne race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically.

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